


you buy me orange juice (we're getting good at this)

by ivermectin



Series: it's the springtime of your life [1]
Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: 10 year reunion, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, POV Chad Danforth, Pining, Unresolved Romantic Tension, the chad/ryan will be healthy and wholesome that i can promise, there's probably more tags for this but i can't think of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26648302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin
Summary: Chad hasn't spoken to Ryan in years. Cue ten year reunion, and picking up where they left off.
Relationships: Chad Danforth/Ryan Evans, minor/background Zeke Baylor/Sharpay Evans
Series: it's the springtime of your life [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938865
Comments: 24
Kudos: 201





	you buy me orange juice (we're getting good at this)

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably the first thing in a series, if all goes well. 'choose not to warn' because a lot of things are, well, implied. there's talk of a past abusive relationship - not in much detail, but it is There. and that's something i don't know how to warn for, because it's the sort of thing some people might find very heavy, and others might find light. 
> 
> that said, this attempts to be a soft fic. what can i say, i love writing chad danforth being sweet and sincere and caring.
> 
> title from 400 lux by lorde.

Chad isn’t particularly keen about going to the ten-year reunion and seeing all his high school classmates at twenty-seven. Over the years, he’s kept in touch with most of the people he wanted to, and he still talked to the guys from the team at least semi-regularly. Troy and Gabi and Taylor want him there, though, and he figures, _no harm, right?_ so he calls his regular babysitter and then calls a cab and shows up at the venue in jeans and a shirt with a floral print pattern.

In a lot of ways, he is still the same person he used to be ten years ago. He fidgets with the necklace he’s wearing, slips it under his collar.

The party’s started when he gets there, but it’s still in the beginning stages. He finds Kelsi, sitting at a piano. She’s done something with her hair, and she’s wearing a sundress and a coat, and she no longer looks like the shy and anxious introverted girl from high school – she’s grown into a woman who takes up space in every room she enters, and is proud for it.

“Hey,” he says, because it’s a better option than going to look for Troy and Gabi.

“Oh, hi,” she says, shifting on the piano bench so that he can sit to her left, and gesturing down.

“I don’t really play,” Chad says, but he sits down anyway.

“Didn’t Ryan teach you chords?” she asks.

Chad swallows at the thought of Ryan. “Kelsi, that was really long ago. I haven’t spoken to Ryan in years.”

Kelsi looks at him, thoughtfully, but before she can say anything, Zeke’s there, and he’s holding a tray of cookies.

Kelsi and Chad help themselves, and then Chad says he’s going to go get something to drink, can he get her anything? And Kelsi says no thank you, but she smiles gently at him.

At the drinks table, Chad nods at Martha, sees Gabriella and Troy, who are talking to some kids from the cheerleading team who Chad doesn’t really know. He’s about to walk over to them, when Zeke appears with more cookies. Troy and Gabriella walk away in the direction of the piano, and Chad watches them go.

He and Zeke are just hanging out by the drinks table when the door opens, and Ryan and Sharpay walk in.

Chad feels slightly light-headed. The twins flounce in, though he notes that Sharpay seems more glad to be there than Ryan. They’re both dressed impeccably as always. Ryan isn’t wearing a hat, but Chad isn’t expecting him to.

It’s been years.

“Danforth! Baylor!” Sharpay exclaims, enthusiastically. She marches up to both of them, and gives them both enthusiastic hugs. “How’ve you both been?”

“I’ve been great!” Zeke says, equally enthusiastically. “Cookie?”

“Hi,” Ryan says, and he sounds almost shy.

“No hug for me?” Chad asks, and Ryan huffs, but smiles, and gives him a hug. Chad’s arms tighten around Ryan, and he takes a deep breath. “Dude, it’s so good to see you.”

“You’re going to be thirty in less than four years,” Ryan says. “Aren’t you too old to be calling people dude?”

“I was a jock in high school, remember?” Chad asks, moving away. “I have a license to call people dude until the day I die.”

Ryan gives him a slightly exasperated look, but looks fond.

“So,” Chad says, addressing both the Evans twins at once. “How have the years been to you?”

“Four divorces,” Sharpay says. “Can you believe it?”

Chad thinks it’s impolite to say yes, but his expression probably betrays what he’s thinking, because Sharpay giggles and gently punches his arm. “You’re a jerk, Danforth,” she says, but she’s grinning.

“I didn’t say anything!” Chad says, but he’s also smiling. “I just, we’re not seventeen anymore, I don’t really know you like that, you know? But, never mind the divorces, are you happy?”

Sharpay shrugs. “I’ll get there. How about you?”

“Eh,” Chad says. “I’m not where I imagined I’d be, but I’m glad to be here.”

“I think most people will relate to that sentiment,” Ryan says, leaning against Chad for a moment.

“I got a divorce, too,” Zeke says to Sharpay.

“ _No_ ,” Sharpay gasps. “Who, in their right mind, would divorce _you_?”

Zeke looks pleased, as expected.

Chad blinks, and then turns to face Ryan. “Want to go grab something to eat?”

“Yeah, why not,” Ryan says, glancing at the flirt session between Zeke and his sister with an expression that mirrors how Chad is feeling, which is _good for you both, but I’m getting out of here._

They walk over to the kitchen.

“The years have been good to you,” Chad says, as they grab snacks from the snacks table. Ryan goes still, and then shakes his head.

“Not really, Chad,” he says.

Feeling awkward about the misstep, Chad nods. “Didn’t mean to, like, assume. I just. You look really striking, you know? Cuter than you did in high school.”

Now Ryan looks amused, which is definitely an improvement.

“I would hope I look cuter than I did in high school,” he says. “Nobody wants to be stuck as a sixteen-year-old for life.”

“Shut it, Evans,” Chad says, smiling. “You know what I meant.”

“Not really,” Ryan admits. His smile fades. “Things haven’t been easy for me.”

Chad, despite the weird pit of discomfort that came from the mystery of why Ryan had suddenly started ghosting him, can’t help feeling concerned all the same. A small part of him, the part of him with self-preservation, is telling him not to get too close to Ryan, because he could hurt Chad again.

But then again, Chad thinks of the summer at Lava Springs, the school year after that, the way they’d stayed in touch for most of college.

Not counting Troy (who definitely counted, but Troy was _different_ ), Ryan Evans had been his best friend. And that had been mutual, or so he’d thought.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Chad offers genuinely.

“You’re too nice,” Ryan says. He’s giving Chad a look that’s somehow confused. “Anyway. I’m going to go and talk to other people for a bit, see you later? Uh, that came out wrong, I just mean –”

“You’re fine,” Chad says. “Go, say hello to everyone. Kelsi’s at the piano, or at least she was last I checked. I’ll be around, pop in whenever.”

Chad watches Ryan walk away, and frowns around the feeling of something not being alright, or more like; something’s happened, and there’s a piece of the puzzle that he’s missing.

-

An hour or so later, and Chad’s considering going back home. He’s spoken to a lot of people he’d lost touch with, and is finding, to his surprise, that Sharpay is actually a fun person to be around, now.

“What?” she asks, when he says as much. “I grew up. We’re nearly thirty, I had no interest in being a high schooler all my life.”

Once he’s done talking to her, he helps himself to a lemon soda (no alcohol, he needs to drive back home.)

Chad takes a look around the room, and then looks outside. He can see the silhouette of Ryan on the porch sitting on the steps, back pressed against a pillar. He’s a solitary and unremarkable figure in a way that seems intentional; he’s sitting as inconspicuously as possible, facing away from the house, as if trying to blend into the vagueness of the surroundings. Chad wants to pick up a drink, but it’s been long enough that he doesn’t know what Ryan would like, and he doesn’t want to grab the wrong drink, because that’d be awkward.

Aware that Ryan’s probably outside because he wants to be alone, but deciding with a stab of _something_ , something connected to the fact that he’d been best friends with Ryan once, he walks outside empty handed.

Ryan tenses a little at the sound of footsteps, but turns to face him. When he sees that it’s Chad, his posture relaxes. “Oh, it’s you.”

“It’s me,” Chad agrees pleasantly. He gestures to the space next to Ryan. “Mind if I join you?”

“I may not be the best company right now,” Ryan says. “But sure, go ahead.”

“Mmh,” Chad says noncommittedly. He sits down next to Ryan, close enough that their shoulders brush, but body angled in a way that gives Ryan the ability to move away if he wants. “So, Evans. How’s it going?”

Ryan shrugs ambiguously. “It’s going.” 

It sounds a lot like something Ryan would’ve said in high school, but Ryan’s posture and subdued tone feel like something else. There’s a weariness to Ryan that he never really had earlier – or maybe he did, it was just never on the surface like this. All the same, Ryan has a charm to him that Chad can’t quite put a finger on; he seems somehow very different from the Ryan he remembers, but in a way that makes Chad want to stick around and understand what happened in the years they’d fallen out of touch.

“I know I said this earlier,” Chad says, “but it’s good to see you. I missed you.”

Ryan takes a deep, shuddering sigh. “I missed you too, Chad,” he says, and there’s a tone of deep sadness to it that takes Chad by surprise. Ryan was the one who’d stopped answering his texts, after all.

“I never wanted to lose touch with you,” Ryan admits, pressing his shoulder against Chad’s. “We were the sort of friends who would’ve stayed in contact forever.”

“We were,” Chad agrees. Trying to keep the hurt out of his voice, he asks, “Why’d you stop talking to me, then?”

Ryan takes a shuddering breath again. “This is sort of a depressing story, are you sure you want to know?”

Chad nods. “I want to hear it, if you’re willing to tell me.”

“Yeah,” Ryan swallows audibly. “Yeah, okay. So, briefly after college, I, uh. Had this boyfriend. It was serious. Things were amazing at first, but things changed soon enough. He was… not very good to me.” Ryan is staring off into the distance now, and he looks haunted. “Controlling and abusive, if you want to be specific,” Ryan says. “He, well, found ways to make me cut out people from my life one by one. All the people who mattered.”

He looks at Chad, tension in every line of his body, and Chad can’t help it; he puts an arm around Ryan, gently pulls him closer. “I’m so sorry, Ry. That’s fucked, you don’t deserve that.”

Ryan sighs, buries his face in Chad’s shoulder, the tension going out of his body but the sadness in his tone remaining. “He got in between me and Sharpay, for a bit,” Ryan says softly. “He did a really good job at getting me entirely alone, and keeping me like that. I’ve lost so much to him, you don’t even know,” and his voice tapers off, and Chad realises, mildly horrified, that Ryan is crying now, shoulders shaking, pressing his face into Chad’s shoulder and refusing to meet his eyes.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Chad offers, shifting so that both his arms are around Ryan. Ryan moves a bit, body melting against Chad’s. Chad’s hands stroke up and down Ryan’s back, and Ryan exhales shakily. “Ryan, you couldn’t have known,” Chad says softly.

“I know,” Ryan murmurs eventually, once he's regained his composure. “I know that. It’s still difficult to talk about, you know? And I guess I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what I’d say?” Chad asks.

“No,” Ryan says immediately. And then he blinks. “Well. Yes. We’re not in high school anymore.” Then, quieter, “I don’t know where I stand with you.”

“We’re still friends,” Chad says with conviction. “I don’t know, there’s something about talking to you that makes me feel like it’s been no time at all since I last saw you.”  
  
Ryan gives him a shaky smile, so Chad counts it a win. “Anyway. Enough of my sob story, though I get the feeling it’ll come up later. How’ve the years been to you? I want details this time, Danforth.”

“Alright, I suppose,” Chad says, giving Ryan a small smile. “Played some basketball seriously for a few years, I’m a coach at school now. And I also took some counselling classes – started out as a thing for extra credit in college but I actually really enjoyed it enough to want to take it forward, so I’m like, part-time counsellor as well at school. I think the biggest surprise is my daughter? She’s five now.”

“You’re a dad,” Ryan says, awed.

“I’m a dad,” Chad agrees. “It was a whole thing. Her mother and I were never together, and she tried the single mom thing for a bit, but it didn’t work out. She didn’t want to give our child up for adoption without asking me first if I wanted custody. And I couldn’t have said no, I mean. I met our daughter and I knew that my life needed her. If that makes sense.”

“Yeah,” Ryan says, softly. “Yeah, it does. I bet you’re a great dad.”

Chad looks at him, and Ryan looks back. There’s something strange and unreadable in Ryan’s expression, a sort of subdued sadness that Chad isn’t used to seeing on Ryan of all people. He shifts slightly, resting his head on Ryan’s shoulder.

They sit there for a while, until the door opens, and Sharpay and Zeke join them. Zeke has an arm around Sharpay’s waist, and they’re leaning into each other in a way that makes Chad think that it’s safe to bet that they’re hooking up now.

“Okay, Ryan,” Sharpay says. “We’re going home now, want to come?”

Ryan looks at the two of them, and then looks at Chad. “Would you,” he begins, and he looks so unsure that it makes Chad’s chest hurt, “want to come back with me? Not for, uh, anything really, just to talk and catch up on lost time?”

Chad smiles. “I’d like that, but I’ve got to get home. Need to release the babysitter, after all.”

“Oh, of course,” Ryan says, dejected but not rude about it. “I should’ve thought of that.”

“I would like to catch up, though,” Chad says. “I’d like that very much. Do you want to come over with me, spend the night? We can just talk and watch movies, no high-pressure activities.”

Sharpay and Ryan exchange a few looks, and Chad watches as some sort of non-verbal communication that he can’t follow takes place quickly and smoothly.

“Okay,” Ryan murmurs more to himself than to Chad. Then, he looks up, meeting Chad’s eyes. “Yes. I’d like that.”

“Call me if you need anything,” Sharpay says to Ryan, squeezing his shoulder before she and Zeke traipse off, away.

“We should say our goodbyes, and then leave,” Chad says.

“I don’t really have anyone to say goodbye to, in there,” Ryan says.

“Well, technically, me neither,” Chad admits. “I’ve stayed in touch with most people, and it’s not like Troy and Gabriella don’t know that I need to be back home by nine. Do you want to just make a run for it?”

“Gosh, that’s so inconsiderate,” Ryan says, but he’s beaming. “I’m down.”

“Of course you are,” Chad says, fondly. He stands up offers Ryan a hand. “Shall we?” 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed! <3


End file.
